How to spend the ultimate weekend in Honolulu, Hawaii

Sep 11, 2024 • 4 min read

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Sep 7, 2024 • 5 min read

A popular hiking trail on the island of Kauai in Hawaii was closed this week after more than three dozen people fell ill in what officials said was a “rare occurrence” of the highly contagious norovirus.

I'm an American born to British parents. My husband is British and recently obtained US citizenship after living there for 10 years. When we had our son (who also has dual citizenship), we knew we'd spend significant time on both continents. However, the pandemic, finances, and busy schedules kept us from traveling internationally.

Sep 5, 2024 • 5 min read

Southwest's Companion Pass, which allows you to bring a friend for nearly free (you have to pay the taxes and fees) on unlimited flights, is one of the most valuable assets in the world of points and miles. It typically takes a lot of Southwest flights and/or credit card spending to nab one of these coveted passes — but sometimes the airline runs flash promotions that let you earn a Companion Pass much faster.

Koji, the mold that transforms soy beans and wheat into soy sauce and rice into sake, is so beloved in Japan that it has its own holiday. And lately, chefs have been finding new uses for the fungus, which has a fruity aroma and an ability to make “anything it touches better,” says Jeremy Umansky, 41, the owner of Larder deli in Cleveland. He uses koji for almost everything: to cure pastrami; to ferment Chinese-style black beans, which are ground and swirled into chocolate babka to embolden the chocolate; and to sprinkle over salads and fries in the form of what the restaurant calls Special K, a seasoning of dried ground koji. “It’s a harmonizer,” he says. Bartenders, too, are taking note. At Nancy’s Hustle in Houston, the bar manager, Zach Hornberger, 32, adds it to the nonalcoholic Silver Brining cocktail, a sweet-sour-salty mix of pickle brine, grapefruit and lime juices, koji and tonic. “It brings this umami background to beverages, and it plays well with citrus, taming the high acid notes and rounding the drink as a whole,” he says. At the restaurant Fête in Honolulu, the bar manager, Fabrice McCarthy, 41, infuses rum with shio koji (a slurry of koji, water and salt) and shakes it into a mai tai to add salinity — the effect, he says, is similar to how salted peanuts make you want to drink more beer. Ryan Chetiyawardana, 40, the owner of the bar Lyaness in London, experiments with koji in multiple forms — for one cocktail, he ferments parsnips with koji, which he says unlocks the sweetness and delivers “a huge tropical brightness.” While koji often plays a supporting role, at Paradiso in Barcelona, it wraps around the entire lip of the glass used for the Fleming, named for Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, another influential mold. For this fungus-inspired cocktail, which includes grapefruit, tequila and miso, the manager of Paradiso’s research lab, Matteo Ciarpaglini, 30, one-upped a classic salt rim with a fluffy cloud of koji, its floral fragrance accompanying every taste. —

If you can't swing a trip to Italy or France, there are some amazing wineries in the US.

Hawaiian Airlines and Hyatt hotels are bringing paradise closer by giving away a 9-night vacation at a trio of hotels on three different islands.

There’s never a bad time to go to Paris, and Air France agrees, giving away a pair of roundtrip flights and a wardrobe incroyable so travelers can live their best French lives.

Aug 30, 2024 • 9 min read